HOCKEY

HOCKEY; Holik Adding Offense To Renown for Defense

By ALEX YANNIS

Published: December 25, 1998

Bobby Holik was the most faithful student of the former Coach Jacques Lemaire's defense-first philosophy the last five years. But Holik, a pugnacious center from the Czech Republic, has become the biggest weapon in the Devils' offensive arsenal this season under the direction of the new Coach Robbie Ftorek, especially since serving a two-game suspension by the league last month.

Holik's hat trick in the 4-2 victory over St. Louis on Wednesday night was his first since 1992, before Lemaire became the Devils' coach. It was his third career hat trick and the team's first since Randy McKay's against Philadelphia last March.

The three-goal outburst gave Holik 15 for the season, including 10 in the last eight games. He had only two goals in the first 11 games before his suspension for tripping Florida's Paul Laus on Nov. 7.

''It might be a coincidence for people outside,'' Holik said of the increase in his offensive production since then, ''but it's not a coincidence to me, not at all.''

Holik explained. ''After that suspension,'' he said, ''I sat down and thought what I could do better for the team. I thought about taking a positive attitude, and it's helped. I knew I could do better.''

Under Lemaire's five-year tutelage, Holik's defensive game reached high standards. His offense also improved last year with 29 goals, the most in his career, but he was stuck at that number for the last month of the season.

The 27-year-old Holik is on a pace to score 38 goals, a number no Devil has accomplished since Stephane Richer five seasons ago. Holik said he did not even want to think about reaching the 30-goal plateau.

''There's very little difference in scoring and playing well,'' Holik said. ''I just want to give everything I have every night and things will fall into place.''

The puck has been falling into the right places for Holik in large part because of his work with Slava Fetisov, the first-year assistant coach. The two worked on matters related to the game during the suspension that Holik did not want to elaborate on.

''I cannot pinpoint the most important thing we worked on,'' Holik said. ''Slava knows the kind of player I am, and we emphasized some things. The most important was working on accuracy and my release.''

Holik has displayed remarkable improvement in the quickness of his shot. His last two goals against St. Louis came on such quick releases from the circle that Grant Fuhr, one of the game's better goaltenders, barely reacted to the shots.

Holik, who came to the United States in 1990 as Hartford's first choice in the National Hockey League draft that year, became an American citizen earlier this year. He is a severe critic of himself and his team and always has the pulse of the Devils.

With the team captain Scott Stevens missing the victory over St. Louis because of back spasms, Ftorek made Holik the alternate captain for the game, and the conscientious Holik took it to heart.

''When you wear the 'A,' it's an honor,'' Holik said. ''I felt more responsible for how the team did.''

Holik gave Ftorek a great deal of credit for the more attractive style the Devils have displayed in recent weeks and for the improvement in his offensive production.

''I obviously feel a lot more comfortable playing in Robbie's system, and it's starting to show,'' Holik said. ''There's no science to it. All I had to do was make some adjustments in my game.''

Holik has adjusted better than others to Ftorek's more offense-minded philosophy perhaps because of his diligence. He analyzes everyone's role and spends time thinking of ways to improve individually and collectively. Holik has been the most effective player offensively even though Ftorek has used different players as his left wing.

''Bobby always works hard at doing things better,'' Ftorek said. ''He's been playing very hard the last few games, and the pucks are going his way.''

Defenseman Scott Niedermayer said of Holik: ''He's feeling pretty good about his game. His game is always solid defensively, but now he's also shooting the puck well.''